Justin Bieber

Okay. So, Justin Bieber is a superstar in the tween pop music world. Young girls everywhere are obsessed with him. There's a movie coming out about his life. He's like 15 or 16. We are not fans, we don't listen to his music, and I'm pretty sure I've never talked about him to anyone, ever. And I'm nearly certain that Jillian has never heard Rick or I talk about him.

SO. Today on the way home from school, Jillian says, "Mom, Adrianna and Ms. Angeline are going to see Justin Bieber next weekend. How come I don't get to go?" My first reaction was, "WHAT?" But I calmly said, "Who are they going to see?" She repeated that they were going to see Justin Bieber, and she really wanted to go with them. I was kind of speechless. How does she even know about Justin Bieber? (As an aside, Adrianna has an older sister who is about 9, so she probably does know about Justin Bieber, but, still...) I was driving along, thinking about how Jillian knows who Justin Bieber is, wondering if she really knows who he is or if she just heard others talking about him, or what. Wondering how we went from The Fresh Beat Band and The Happy Monster Band straight to Justin Bieber. And about how she soaks up everything and has so much more going on in her little head than I'll ever know. I mean, Justin Bieber??

And then. Then, she said, "mom, who IS Justin Bieber, anyway?" Oh, sweet girl. She thought Adrianna and Ms. Angeline were just going to see some guy named Justin, and she wanted to know who he was. Yay!